Category: Language

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Language

Prepositions and Directions for Diinlang

When I first started fielding ideas for Diinlang a subject that causes a few headaches was that of prepositions. This area is still not completed but some new inspirations came to me last night.
English has a lot of prepositions and words that resemble them. Being English the system is irregular and words originate from many different sources.
My current working model is that these can be treated as three related groups.
The first group has directions such as up, down, forward, back, left, right, in and out. These can be treated as a point in space or a movement. Something might be “inside” or moving “inward”. In English the suffixes may not be used for some of the listed words or their use variable. I can say “up from Bill” or “upwards of Bill”. This suggests that a relatively logical and regular system for Diinlang can be constructed using “-ki” for motion and “-ru” for static as suffixes.
The second group are relative directions. They refer to a point relative to another point. Above, below, beside, port, starboard, before, beyond, under, on, against, abaft, abeam, super-, sub- etc. Possibly this variety can be covered by words for up, down, forward, back, left, right, in and out with some addition to indicate they are relative. Many of the existing words use “a-” or “be-”. “A-” derives from the meaning “up” or “out” rather than from the Latin “ad-” for “to”. “Be-” is Old English/ Germanic for “throughout” or “around”. Some of these words substitute for phrases such as “XXXwards of/ from” or “XXX from”.
The third group are adjectives that can be confused with prepositions and may have some overlap in use. High, tall, deep, low, thick, thin, narrow, wide, etc. To this list we can add related nouns such as height, length, depth, width, etc.
(It has just occurred to me that “etplu” in Diinlang would be more elegant than saying “etcetera” or “eksset”)
The above is not a comprehensive list, of course. I have stuck to basic linear motion and not considered circling motions, for example. In English using the above words in phrases with “to” or “from” can modify the meaning and how this can be done in Diinlang needs consideration.
The basic categorization proposed does give an idea of how prepositions in Diinlang should be approached. The basic directions/ points can be modified with affixes such as  “-ki”  and “-ru”. These basic words can then be modified for terms for relative directions. These words can possibly replace many of the adjectival words or create words whose relationship is clear.
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Language

Comparatives and Superlatives Part Two

While I am happy with the basic mechanism I have proposed for comparatives and superlatives the actual words to be used have varied.
My latest idea is to use the words “min” and “plu”, which are already used in a number of other languages, including several IALs. In Diinlang these are used as prefixes but may also be used as standalone words in certain applications.
“Plu” is the equivalent of “more” or “much”. “Min” is “fewer” or “less”. The equivalent superlatives are created with the ending “-st” to create “plust” or “minst” and have the meanings “most”, “the majority”, “fewest”, “least” etc.
The word “tro”, used in a number of other languages, indicates an excess or “too much/many”. An antonym meaning “too few/little” may be created. “Tro min” would have this meaning or might also mean “not enough”.
For better clarity I have changed the small/ medium/ large words to mik/ mes/ gros. Words for good/ bad remain as bon/ mal. These are used with the comparatives and superlatives in a regular and predictable fashion.
Thus  bon/ plubon/ plustbon is good/ better/ best and mal/ plumal/ plustmal is bad/ worse/ worst.  Gros/ plugros/ plustgros is big/ bigger/ biggest and mik/ minmik/ minstmik is small/ less small/ least small.
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Language

Categories from Interglossa

While researching constructed languages I have encountered a number of systems. One of particular note was Interglossa. One reason for this was the creator’s name was not unknown.
Lancelot Hogben was author of the book “Mathematics for the Million”, a book that should probably be on the curriculum of all schools.
Interglossa is also impressive in that a book trying to promote international understanding and fraternity was published at the height of World War Two.
Interglossa has some interesting ideas, although I do not think many of them are in the current version of Diinlang.
In a previous post I remarked on the problem of finding suitable categories to assign syllables or mora to. Interglossa’s section on Generic Substantives does provide some useful suggestions in this direction.
“-pe”, meaning “person” is used to create agent noun type constructions. “aero-pe”, airman, “agri-pe”,  farmer and “ergo-pe”, worker. In Diinlang, I have proposed that the third person pronouns “ze”, “zo” and “za” be used in this fashion.
“-re” is used for inanimates such as “ferro-re”, ironware, “pedi-re”, step and “reflecto-re”, mirror. In Diinlang I have proposed “it” be used as a suffix in similar fashion, although an alternative might be considered for less physical inanimates.
“-ca”, from the word “cameri” is used for room, chamber, cabin, hall or compartment. Since Diinlang does not use the letter “c” an alternative will need to be selected.
“-do” from “domi” is a house, building, tent or man-made erection. “dom” may be used for Diinlang.
“-fa” from “fascio” is a group, set, bunch, batch, heap or collection. This is a good example of the Greek/ Latin derivation of many of Interglossa’s words. In Diinlang a single syllable word will be used and there may be distinction between groups of objects and people and their coherency. For example, a team has more common purpose than a gang or mob.
“-fi” is a cord, filament, line, rope, string, thread or wire.
“-ru” is from “instrumenti”. Hogben notes that the antecedent of a -ru compound always points to function, making it an agent noun for inanimate objects.
“-li” comes from “lithi” and denotes a stone, rock or translucent jewel. The full word is used for non-transparent ornamental stones, hence “chloro-li” emerald, beryl and “chloro-lithi”, jade, malachite.
“-lo” from “loco” for place, region, territory, domain, locality.
“-ma” or “materia” for material, stuff, substance, including some liquids (suspensions/ solutions?).
“-me” from “mechani” for machine, apparatus, device, engine, mechanism. Hogben states the antecedent points either to function or power source. This word is used for motors and engines. This should probably be used to indicate more complex tools than “-ru”. In Diiblang this is very likely to be the syllable “mek”.
“-mo” from “mobili” for furniture or moveables.
“-te” or “texti” for fabric, cloth, textile, woven material, tissue, canvas, muslim, etc.
“-va” or “vassa” is a vessel, container, jug, mug, cup, bowl, pitcher. This seems a very useful category. “va-“ is used as a prefix to indicate tinned, canned or bottled goods. Hogben states that the meaning can be made more explict by using an antecedent point to the function or other suggestive characteristic rather than the object’s composition. Thus, the equivalent of “drinking vessel” is superior to “glass”. Hogben used “ora-va”, mouth-vessel.
“-ve” or “vesto” is covering, clothes, vesture, costume, -wear, suit, dress.
“-zo” or “zona” is ring, belt, hoop, zone, band. The distinct word “cycli” is used for circle and “sphera” for a ball or sphere. The word “zo” is already in use in Diinlang. The word “ring” already meets the requirements of Diinlang, being one syllable, CVn format and as a bonus recognizable to English and English second language (ESL) speakers. “zo/zona” suggest that categories such as bar/pole and tube/pipe might be useful. The English word “QUAD” has a somewhat rectangular look. It is tempting to create words for circle or sphere using the letter “O”.
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Language

Balancing a Conlang

“Fast, Cheap, Good : pick any two”.
I am often reminded of this when considering constructed languages. Unfortunately the wishlist is not that simple!
One thing that might be desired is for the new language to be easy to use and quick to learn. This suggests that the language should have a logical and consistent construction. Verbs should all be regular and there should be very few “exceptions to the rule”.
Easy to use implies that the reader/speaker is not required to have a particularly in-depth knowledge of grammatical theory.
Esperanto and several other constructed languages have distinct endings for adjectives, adverbs and/or other word types. It is quite possible to be fluent in a natural language without being particularly conscious of such distinctions. I managed several decades of speaking English without even knowing the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs.
Familiarity might seem an attractive feature in making a conlang user friendly.
Many conlangs have drawn on existing natural languages for their vocabulary.
Typically the romance languages are used. Examples include Novial and Lingua Franca Nova.
An English based example is Inlis.
Some of these conlangs have the advantage that it is often relatively easy to work out the gist of the meaning.
Easy, that is, if you have some grounding in the languages on which the conlang is based.
Knowledge of the romance languages is not as widespread as one might assume from the number of speakers.
I once overhead a long, drawn out conversation between a French speaker with limited English and an English-speaking Chinese girl.
The stumbling block was the question “Quel age as-tu?”
Another stumbling block is that the same or similar words have different meanings in some natural languages.
English has so many homophones and irregular verbs that attempting to make it into something more consistent and logical rapidly transforms it to something that is not that recognizable.
Using existing words and words that are logical or easily learnt meshes somewhat uneasily.
The word for plumber in many European languages is based on a word for lead, but it is not necessarily based on the word “plumbum”.
Plumbers seldom use lead for modern plumbing so the name is not obvious for those that do not know its historical origins.
“Water pipe worker” seems more obvious but that could also describe a urologist!
We could replace the word for “worker” with “doctor” or “healer”, but a urologist may be an academic rather than a medical man.
“Water pipe studier” could mean someone who designs drainage systems!
Brevity is another desirable characteristic.
Obviously it would be desirable if the most commonly used words are the shortest and/or easiest to say.
This may clash with using existing or familiar words.
It may also clash with more logical construction of words.
Even if we assign only a syllable to “water pipe worker” we have a word of three syllables, four if “worker” is formed as an agent noun of “work”.
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Language

Lego Words

One of the current problems with the Diinlang project has been the lack of vocabulary. Most of my work has been with respect to verb structures, pronouns, noun genders and similar subjects.
Essentially I have built some bones for Diinlang but we also need some “meat” to better illustrate how the bones are working.
A number of approaches can be made towards creating a vocabulary. The one that I favour at present is the use of “lego” syllables. Each syllable has a specific meaning so the meaning of a word can be deduced by consideration of the “bricks” it was built with.
An often repeated piece of information on language webpages is that the Mandarin word for “plumber” is “water pipe technician”.
The three characters used can be read in a number of ways and an alternative might be “pipe working expert”.
This does, however illustrate the lego syllable idea. If we have syllables that mean “water”, “pipe/tube” and “work/ worker” we can build a word for plumber and have a reasonable chance that a Diinlang speaker who has never before encountered that word would have a good idea of its meaning.
For example, if water was “kwa”, pipe was “piy” and work “gung” our plumber would be a “kwapiygungzo”, or perhaps just a “piygungzo”.
This approach has been tried with some other artificial languages. Ithkuil is an example of a language with information dense words. Possibly the best know example is Searight’s Sona language.
Sona uses syllables as “radicals” and the meanings and associations with related syllables can sometimes be more intricate that you might first assume. Like many conlangs, it is geared more towards written rather than spoken use and some of the distinct radicals are phonically similar.
See this article for an essay on the use of radicals and a convenient list here.
One of the initial concepts of Diinlang was that syllables should have a “CVn” format, where “C” is a consonant, “V” is a vowel and “n” is a nasal such as “m”, “n” or “ng”.
It should be understood that C and V represent phonemes rather than single letters.
In practice Diinlang has expanded to use phonically clear mora (“CV” and “VC”) and some “CVC” constructions, particularly when the final C has a hard sound.
There are therefore plenty of syllables to choose from. The real work is selecting what the building blocks to assign them to should be!
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Language

Ving, Vang, Vong

Before I decided to place my thoughts on Diinlang on this blog, I was using the word sequence “ving”, “vang”, “vong” for the words “here”, “there” and “yonder”. The acoustics of ving, vang, vong made them easy to remember that they were related.
I expected to use the same system for other sequences of related words.
The start of the blog coincided with an interest in Dutton Speedwords, so I considered a shorter series of words and proposed “sa”, “si” and “so”.
Despite the brevity, I have not been particularly satisfied with this change. “Si” and “sa” also had the meaning of “this” or “that” and by implication “so” could mean “that which is very distant”.
If the use of ving, vang and vong is reinstituted, it may be more logical to place them in alphabetical order so the sequence becomes “vang”, “ving”, “vong”.
The concept of “near” could also be added to the sequence, giving us “vang”, “veng”, “ving” and “vong” for “here”, “near”, “there/ far” and “yonder/ very far”.
If used as demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) the definitive article or another determiner is used to indicated noun/ pronoun status. Compare to "det här" in Swedish. Hence “de vang, de ving, de vangz/ dez vang, de vingz/ dez ving”. These may mutate to “dang” and “ding” so keep these words free for this potential use.
This also makes it more practical to resume use of “se” as a reflexive pronoun, as it is used in Portuguese and some Scandinavian languages. Pronunciation would most likely be “she” in Diinlang.
Whether to use “ving” also as a relative pronoun needs to be considered. Interglossa uses “su” from “subject” as a relative pronoun, which I quite like. It is possible Diinlang could use both “ving” and “su” but have them fully interchangeable.
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Language

Agent Nouns in Diinlang

In English agent nouns are created by adding “-er” to a verb. English being English this is sometimes done with “-ir” or “-or”. “-er” is also used for comparatives. Some agent nouns, such as “artist” use “-ist”, although “-ist” is more commonly used for someone who holds a belief or follows a philosophy rather than someone who performs an action.
For Diinlang it is obviously desirable that there is only one way to create an agent noun, and that this be of a form that is distinct from other word types.
An option I considered was to use the suffix “-or”. This could be gendered as “-oro” for males and “-ora” for females. Inanimate objects that perform an action would be designated by “-it”. Thus if we used the work “kuk” for the action of cooking a cooker or stove would be a “kukit”and the person using it a “kukor”, “kukoro” or “kukora”. (This is just for illustrative purposes. The final world for “cook” may be quite different)
It occurs to me that things can be made simpler for the learner. The word “du” is used for the verb “to do”. We also have the pronouns “zo”, “za” and “ze” to indicate male, female and neuter/unknown. This might give us “kukdu/ kukduze”, “kukduzo” and “kukduza”. Unfortunately if the verb we are modifying is “du” this gives us “dudu” or “duduze”. The syllable “du” is probably redundant which suggest that agent nouns be created by the simple expedient of using “-ze”, “-z0” and “-za” as suffixes.
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Language

"Hznai" and words as patten recognition

“It dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.”
The above passage is taken from an interesting article written by a web-acquaintance of mine. This is an example of typoglycemia. The explanation for this is that generally we treat written words primarily as patterns. We only tend to look at each individual letter if the pattern is unfamiliar such as in a word that we do not know. Unlike Chinese, English words are composed of letters and their arrangement will give us some help in determining how the unfamiliar word is pronounced. Of course, given the numerous irregular rules of English the word may be pronounced in a quite different way to what the component letters may suggest to the reader!
That words are not fully read has been established by various experiments. Most of us read much faster than we might do if it was necessary to register every letter. Many of us can also correctly comprehend a larger number of words than we correctly spell. In one test I saw participants were rapidly reading out loud a prepared text. Unbeknown to them the text had deliberate mistakes such as “bifferent”. This was pronounced as “different” on the playback. Context doubtless also had an effect on such corrections.
One of the things that strikes me about the above passage is that it seems to suggest there are a fairly limited selection of commonly used word endings in English:
 “-m”, “-n” and “-ng” are used.
“-d” and “-t”
“-r” and “-l”
“-k” and “-g”
“-s”
“-z” and “-x” and some other letters are rarer but not unknown.
Vowel endings are also used. “-y” is phonetically “-i”. Some of the “-e” endings would probably be replaced by the above consonants if the words were first rendered into a more phonetic form. Words like “bole” or “fare” have homophones such as “bowl” or “fair”.
In a more practical vein grouping words by “first letter, last letter, approximate length” may greatly improve the capabilities of search engines and similar systems. One can envision a search engine mode where one enters the first and last letter and the word length. Words of six to nine letters would be grouped together, as would words of eight letters or more.
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Language

Phonetic Consonants in English

Following the post on phonetic representation of vowels in English it is only logical that I make some comments on consonants.
The good news is that the majority of consonants in English only have one phoneme. The bad news is that consonants are sometimes silent.
Three consonants are unnecessary and are not used in phonetic spelling. These are C, Q and X.
C in English either represents an “S” sound or a “K”.
Q represents a “kw” sound that is more usefully represented by these letters. The “u” that customarily follows a Q is usually silent.
X in English is generally pronounced as a “Z”. When it is preceded by an “e” the sound is often “eks”. “Taxi” can be rendered phonetically as either “taksi” or “takzi”, depending on dialect.
G is a consonant that has two phonemes, being either a “g” sound or a “j”. It is also a silent letter in some words. Phonetically G is used for a hard “g” and “j” is used for “j” sounds.
J is a relatively young letter, dating back to the middle ages. In other words it was necessary to create a letter to represent a phoneme that was in common use. It is therefore a little surprising that “j” was a letter that Benjamin Franklin did not include in his phonetic alphabet. Instead he represented the sound with his letters representing “dsh”.
Another letter Franklin eliminated was “W”. While some nationalities have trouble with pronouncing “w” it is a distinct phoneme in English. Like “j” it is a relatively new letter that came into common use in the early middle ages. Franklin represented “hw”/ “wh” and “w” with letter combinations such as “hu” and “uu”.
Y is a distinct phoneme when at the start of a word or syllable. In English pronunciation “yog” is phonetically distinct from “jog”, for example.
When H is placed after another consonant it generally has a softening effect. Some of the exceptions to this constitute some of the most widely used consonant digraphs.
SH is used in words such as “shush”.
CH is often rendered as TSH in many phonetic systems. An argument can be made that in the initial position “ch” may have a softer sound, closer to “jh”. This gives us the words “jhurtsh” and “jhiyna” for “church” and “china”.
TH in English has two phonemes. It has an “f” sound in words such as “three” or “thigh”. This is rendered as “th” in many phonetic systems although “fh” may be closer in actual sound. TH words with a “d” or “v” like sound may be phonetically spelt with a “dh”. Many of the “dh” words are determiners or pronouns and include dhe, dhey, dhem, dhis, dhat, dhez, dhouz, dhayr and widh
PH is inherited from Greek and is phonetically represented by “f”.
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Language

20(ish) Vowels

Officially English has twenty vowel sounds but only five vowel letters. The other vowel sounds are represented by combinations of two or more letters. Unfortunately most of these vowel sounds can be represented by multiple different combinations with no apparent logic or consistency. For example, the words “boot” and “hook” have quite different pronunciations, both of them closer to “u” sounds than “o”.
If a more phonetic form of English is desired then the vowel sounds seem a very logical place to start.
The five “basic” vowels are:
Sound
Usually written
Examples
/æ/
a
mat, pat, lap
/ɛ/
e
met, pet, let
/ɪ/
i
bin, pit, lip
/ɒ/
o
rot, pot, lot
/ʌ/
u
fun, sun, luck = fun, sun, luhk
These are relatively consistent, so we will move on to the other vowel sounds. In the second column I suggest standardized letter combinations to represent these. Further discussion of these is in the section below:
/eɪ/
ay/ ey
wait, day, late = wayt, day, layt.
/ɑ:/
ar/ aa
far, car
/eə/
er/ ayr
air, care, where =ayer, kayr, wayr
/iː/
ii
sheep, meat, fiend, elite = shiip, miit, fiind, ayliit/ eyliit.
/ɪə/
ir
steer, near, here = stir, nir, hir
/ɜ:/
ur
stir, her, word, bird, hurt = stur, hur, wurd, burd, hurt
/aɪ/
ai/ iy
I, sign, fight, dry, ice = ai, sain, fait, drai, ais/ iy, siyn, fiyt, driy, iys.
/u:/
u/ uu
do, doom, through, boot = du/ duu, duum, thru/ thruu, buut
/ɔɪ/
oy
coin, toy = koyn, toy
/əʊ/
oh
boat, note, snow, know = boht, noht, snoh, noh
/ʊə/
or
for, oar, worn, door, more, saw, paw, lore = for, or, worn, dor, mor, sor, por, lor.
/aʊ/
ou
sound, cow, how, now = sound, kou, hou, nou
/ʊ/
u
look, hook = luk, huk
/juː/
yu
few, due, cube = fyu, dyu, kyub.
One of the surprises in constructing this table is the variability of how “u” is used. The dictionary insists words like “do” and “through” are a “long u” (/u:/) while I would be inclined to pronounce them “du” and “thru”. Indeed, this would be my inclination to pronounce any word ending in a “u”. “Look” is obviously a short “u” sound, “luk”. Spelling “luck” phonetically in the above system gives us “luk” too although pronunciation is obviously different, hence I used “luhk”. Further examination of the ways “u” is used as a phoneme may be needed.
The “i” in words like “high” or “wire” is represented by “ay” in SaypYu. To my mind this is too likely to be taken as “-ay” as in “may” by English speakers. As far as I know “ay” is always pronounced “/eɪ/” in English. SaypYu’s use of “ay” requires the unnecessary respelling of many perfectly reasonably spelt English words. In the past I have suggested that this should be “ai”, pronounced as in “thai”. A good case can be made for instead using the letter combination “iy”. Thus words such a “fire” become “fiyr”, which is fairly easy to comprehend.
Saypyu uses “ey” to represent the “a” sound in words such as “may” or “same”. If “iy” or “ai” is used to represent the gliding “i” “ay” can be used to represent the gliding “a” and is more easily comprehended by English speakers. There may be a case made for using both “ey” and “ay”. “Ey” would be used for “/eɪ/” sounds not traditionally spelt “ay”. One problem with phonetically spelling English is it increases the number of homographs, something that the language hardly needs!
“er/ ayr” is another case where two different spellings may be used. Words such as “air”, “care” and “where” are more easily comprehended using the “ayr” spelling : “ayr”, “kayr”, “wayr”. The spelling of other words may be clearer using what is effectively a rhotic form of schwa. The distinction between these two may be more pronounced in some accents and dialects.
The long “a” is another phoneme that might be represented two ways. In the above table examples are given of a rhotic form but this may not be applicable for some words. Alternately “ah” may be used instead. Is “father” better spelt “fardher”, “fahdher” or “faadher”?
“/ɔː/” as in “saw” or “sore” would usually be represented by “or”. For some uses such as “/ɔːl/” or “/ɔl/” in “ball” the use of “au” to create “aul” might be clearer.
Careful readers will have realised that the above options give this system more than twenty vowel sounds. They may also have noted that the two tables only have nineteen rows! The missing vowel sound is schwa, which is not represented by a letter in English. Unlike Saypyu I have attempted to create a vowel system that for the most part uses existing English constructions. This system should be comprehendible to native English speakers as well as easy for non-native speakers to learn. Schwa will usually be represented by “e” although in some words it may be clearer if another vowel is used.
The above vowel system is relatively easy to remember. Firstly, you have the digraphs that end in “-r” : ar, er, ir, or, and ur, to which we might add “ayr”.
Then come the doubled letters : ii, uu, au and possibly aa.
Next come the digraphs with a “y” in : yu, ay, ey, iy, oy.
And last, the other “o”s : oh, ou.
This gives seventeen vowels, which with schwa and the single letter vowels is twenty-three in total. Some of these vowels represent the same or similar phonemes. ah, eh, ih and uh might also be considered to be digraph vowels.  This gives us a much more logical and intuitive system than traditional English.
An example:
“Aul hyumen biingz ar born frii and iikwel in digniti and riytz. Dhey ar endoud widh riizen and konshens and shud akt tewordz wun enodher in ey spirit ov brodherhud.”